Youngest leopard cub ever documented in a tree hole with mother at Yala National Park, Sri Lanka: a rare sighting
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17840299Keywords:
Panthera Pardus, Conservation, Wildlife, ObservationAbstract
The Sri Lankan leopard (Panthera pardus kotiya) occupies a wide range of habitats across the island, yet sightings of very young cubs in the wild are exceptionally uncommon. This report describes an extraordinary observation of a newborn cub with its mother inside a tree cavity in Yala National Park, Sri Lanka. On April 7, 2023, a female leopard was seen caring for a cub estimated to be under 10 days old, resting in a hollow located roughly 4.5 meters above the ground. High-quality photographs documented the mother nursing, grooming, and calmly guarding her offspring, offering a rare glimpse into early maternal behavior and den-site selection. A subsequent sighting in 2024 confirmed that the cub had survived and matured, indicating successful early development. This unusual observation enriches current knowledge of leopard reproductive behavior and highlights the importance of continued conservation efforts to safeguard this vulnerable subspecies within its natural habitats.
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